Yaeli's Blog

Saturday, October 29, 2005

That's enough about me. Let's talk about you. What do you think about me?

I am a total slack arse and cannot think of anything to post about. So I am going to turn to the wonderful people who read my blog, and ask you all for some inspiration.

What I would like y'all to do is to leave a comment asking 2 questions about me, and I will endeavour to answer them in my next post. Please try to ask different questions (I don't want to be asked 23 times what my favourite flavour of ice cream is) and try to keep the smut to a minimum. :o)

I'm looking forward to having a more interesting post for you very soon!

Friday, October 28, 2005

Mental health day today.

Howdy peoples!I am still alive!

I've been super lax in the blogging world this week because I have been really busy completing my mental health prac for uni.I got my marks yesterday and I passed with flying colours, so yay and woohoo for me!!!

There hasn't really been much else worth blogging about this week. Everything has been very quiet.

Unfortunately, this afternoon my ability to blog wherever I want will end as I will be going back to my own house instead of house sitting for my mum. :o( No more blogging in bed for me! At least until I get wireless at my place, which isn't very likely. :o(

I have a huge assignment due on Tuesday and it's a group assignment and as far as I know nobody in the group has done any work on it so I now have to chase everyone up and try and organise a group meeting for this weekend. I HATE ASSIGNMENTS!!!!!

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Addressing concerns.

For those not in the know, in this post I have mentioned three cases that I have seen on my uni mental health placement in the last week, as examples of what I deal with and what I see at work.

Fuzzbuck was concerned about the implications of my discussing patients / clients on my blog.

I would like to thank Fuzzbuck for raising his concerns. He has a very valid point. For the record though, I would like to state my position on the situation just to clarify that I am not a totally immoral cow.

It would be seriously questionable if I posted details which might be used to identify the clients. But as I have only mentioned the cases without providing information that would identify the specific clients or the facility which they are in, according to standards, it is not an unacceptable practice amongst health professionals.

As for whether or not this practice is morally acceptable or not, I suppose that depends upon an individual's personal values and morals. I blog to keep track of things that have happened to me. Working with physically and mentally ill patients is a large part of my life and it is something that I like to share with my friends on the internet. I feel that it is acceptable to mention and discuss interesting cases that I come across as long as I do not:

a) identify the clients by providing specific information about them or the facility they are in,

and

b) I try to remain impartial when describing cases, and I try to refrain from passing judgement upon the client.

I try to live by the "Do unto others" Golden Rule, and I have thought about this long and hard. I would not be opposed to a health professional discussing my case in any open forum (on a blog, in a class, in a university paper, in a conversation, etc.) as long as I personally was not identifiable from the information given. I do not believe that my discussion comprimises my clients privacy.

I can't help but wonder if you would have voiced your concerns had I mentioned patients with purely physical illnesses.

Friday, October 21, 2005

I have an owie.

Sorry I have disappeared for the last week. I have been doing my uni mental health clinical placement and have spent much of the week in a locked psych ward at one of my local hospitals. It's great fun with heaps of interesting cases, such as:

A woman in her mid 50's who believes she was attacked by aliens who impregnated her. According to her she has been pregnant for 12 months.

A schizoaffective guy with serious anger management issues, who tells me that he's into blondes who have my body type and that if I were a blonde I'd be in serious trouble. he also mentioned that he could always kidnap me and dye my hair blonde. (Before anyone panics, he is the sanest of the lot and is mainly joking around... I hope.)

And... (the piece de resistance)

A guy who is a potential serial killer. He used to pinch children because he likes it when they say ouch, and he once killed a duck because he was interested in finding out what temperature duck fat burns at.

Like I said... INTERESTING.

I really like it and I'm seriously considering majoring in mental health nursing next year.

On the "owie" front, I broke my toe last night when I tripped over a rug at home and got my little toe caught. But I was on my way to work for a night shift and I didn't have time to ice it or rest it. As a result the bruising this morning is pretty spectacular. When I find a digital camera I'll post some photos just so that I can advertise the extent of my injuries. :o)

I got home from work about an hour ago and I'm too jazzed to sleep, despite having only 3 and a half hours sleep in the last 24 hours, so I guess I'm gonna have to pop a DVD on until I settle down.

ADDENDUM - 15:15: I have worked out how to text photos from my phone to my e-mail account. These photos of my toe were taken this morning after my post. Since then more bruising has developed. :o( Poor me.

Watched movies all day waiting for work to call me with a shift, and when they didn't I watched more movies.

Released Tallulah the possum in my backyard, and stood there waving my arms and talking to him, trying to chivvy him up the tree. (Yes we did give the possibly male possum a chicks name... do you have a problem with that?)

Not the most exciting weekend huh? I might have to get back on the party circuit soon.

The picture below was sent around by a friend of mine as an e-mail joke. The best bit though, is that these knife blocks actually do exist! A designer shop in my local shopping area ( sometimes known as Chatswong) sells them, but they ain't cheap. They cost about $180 (AUS) a pop. Still, when I get back from Vanuatu I'm gonna have to get me one for my new place. It's just too good to pass up!!!

To my dear friend Utenzi:Over the weekend I noticed that our forbidden love affair is beginning to attract attention from our friends at Michele's. People are starting to talk. :o) I hope your girlfriend doesn't mind. ;o)

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Don't tell me crap shoes is coming!

WARNING!!! DO NOT READ THIS POST WHILST EATING OR SHORTLY AFTER EATING. IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH, SKIP TO THE PICTURE OF THE POSSUM.You may be asking yourselves "Why is Yaeli blogging at 4:45 in the morning?"

The short answer is "Because the dog shit in the house."

This picture is not of a real dog poo. It is a rubber one. So don't complain to me about it!

Before I went to bed last night I asked my house guests (Mr Craig and Miss Aimee and Miss Ali) to please close the hall door so that during the night the dog could not access the rest of the house, in particular the carpeted areas which she has developed a fondness for weeing and pooing on. I then went to bed in an attempt to stave off a brewing migrane, and I promptly fell into a rather deep sleep. So deep that I didn't even hear Mr Craig come to bed several hours later. (For those who raised their eyebrows at the last sentence, Mr Craig and I are only sharing sleeping space, there is no hankypanky going on.)

At about 3:45 this morning I woke with the realisation that I could hear the dogs collar clanking around, and 5 minutes later it dawned on me that I shouldn't be able to hear this at all as the dog was supposed to be confined to the back room. Cursing and swearing away, I threw back the doona and leapt out of bed (Mr Craig did not move) and stormed into the hall way to suss out what the dog was doing. Obviously, Miss Aimee had a similar idea and, upon hearing my stomping and cussing, she popped her head out of the spare and turned on the light.

At that very second I felt something squelch between my toes. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!!!!!!

After spending the next 20 minutes cleaning up dog shit and debating whether or not to wake up Craig, Aimee and I were far too jazzed to go back to bed. So we stomped around the house trying to wake Craig and we made our way out the front with our cigarettes in one hand and big glasses of Coca Cola in the other.

Aimee has decided that she is an all singing, all dancing, one woman show at 4:30 in the morning. She'll be here all week, be sure to try the veal.

Anywhoo, I am still too jazzed to go back to bed so I decided to blog instead.

Take a look at the picture below.

One of the cousins of this little fella (a ring-tailed possum, native to Australia) is the reason why the dog was inside last night. Since Thursday night I could hear something in my downpipe that runs off the guttering out the back. Because the downpipe is so small I very logically concluded that no possum would be able to fit in it and therefore the noisy thing inside must be either a myna bird or a rat (both are pests here hence why I wasn't too concerned with saving it).

By yesterday evening (Saturday) Mr Craig had become curious to find out exactly what was making all the noise in the drain pipe. So he detatched the bottom of the down pipe and managed to extract a reasonably sized, very dehydrated and exhausted ring-tailed possum. The Possum popped out head and arse first so his back got stuck in the small drain pipe, hence an extraction was required.

We put him in the biggest box we could find and gave him food and water and wrapped him up in towels and then left him to sleep it off in the garage. Figuring that the last thing the poor, stressed little thing needed was a nosy labrador around, I kept the dog inside to give Tallulah (not a very non-gender specific name, I know) a bit of rest and time to make a great escape if required.

See what happens when you do good stuff? All you get in return is dog shit!

I am going to spray my house again now because I can still smell the poo. Crap!

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Just faffing around.

I've been playing at Yellojkt's Blog doing some quizes that he posted a couple of weeks ago and a few others I've found, because I'm bored and I have nothing else to do and I can't think of anything of consequence to write about.

Here are some of my results. :o)

The promiscuity test:

I am 72% Promiscuous.

I like sex and have a healthy sex life. I get just enough and know how to use my sexuality. Some people might have a problem, but that is their problem not mine. They just need to get more.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

I'm blogging in bed!!!!

I love this wireless network business. It's great! I can blog from where ever I want!! I can blog in bed, in the bath, in the backyard, or anywhere else that takes my fancy!!! It's so exciting!!!

I have spent the last two days at a first aid course to complete my Senior First Aid Certificate. I passed the tests with flying colours and I am now the proud holder of a first aid certification! What really gets me though is that I paid $160 (AUS) for a two day course which I had basically paid $2000 (AUS) to do already because the content pretty much covered everything that I have done at uni. Essentially, I paid $160 for a piece of paper. But I really did need to get the certificate so that I can go to Vanuatu, so I guess it's worth it.

Last night Miss Aimee came over and I cooked pumpkin, sweet potato, potato, asparagus and chicken risotto. I have never cooked risotto before, and I must say that for a first attempt its was pretty damn good! A little bit gluggy, but not too bad. And it was VERY tasty!! I might have to have some for lunch today. :o)

The other day I promised a "briefing post" about my trip to Vanuatu. So here it is.

The deal with Vanuatu is that I am going over there as a challenger with a company called Youth Challenge Australia, a branch of Youth Challenge International. I will be participating in a 10 week program from 2nd Dec 2005 to the 6th Feb 2006. Rather than retyping the websites I am providing links to the relevant pages, because the professionals describe the project and its purpose more eloquently and with greater detail than I can.

Those are the major links that should answer many of the questions that my dear friends have.If you have any other questions then feel free to post them in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them in a subsequent post.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Home in one piece!!!

I made it home in one piece!!! Although I am a little sore and sorry for myself.

The weekend was great. We camped on a property in the Megalong Valley and the view was similar to the photo below. When I got there yesterday morning (at 7:45am) everyone was already up and doing stretches in preparation for going on a hike. That was the last time that I could acurately say what time it was because the confiscated my watch, wallet, keys and cigarettes. Apparently we weren't supposed to know what time it was.

Anywho, I arrived just in time to do a 12km hike through the bush with my 15kg pack on. There's nothing like being thrown in the deep end!!! As a result of this I'm feeling a bit sore and sorry for myself today. My quads and calves hurt from the hiking, and my hips and shoulders hurt from taking the weight of my pack.

After a rather dodgy dinner of vegetable curry with crunchy chickpeas and undercooked, burnt rice, cooked on a camping stove in a huge pot, we all gathered around a camp fire and yawned away until it seemed appropriate to go to bed.

It got icy cold overnight and it rained and blew a gale down the valley, but thanks to my schmick sleeping mat and my borrowed down sleeping I was snuggly warm in the tent I was sharing with 3 other girls.

This morning we were woken at about 6 and we were sent to find a guy who had gone "missing" (i.e. the leaders had organised for him to go and lie in a ditch at dawn and pretend he was hurt). So off I went running through paddocks with my new found mates, trying to find our "injured" team mate. We finally found him lying down near the creek and we saved his life and completed the task.

The best part of the whole weekend was meeting four other people who will be coming to Vanuatu with me. 3 guys and 1 other girl. Funnily enough I'm not the only nurse in the group. One of the guys is a second year student nurse from Armidale. It should be a very interesting trip. :o)

Dena and several other people have been asking for more info about my trip and it's purpose, so I'll try to put up a "briefing post" sometime this week.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Me? In a tent? You've gotta be kidding!

Tomorrow I'm off very early in the morning, to the Blue Mountains , or more specifically, the Megalong Valley (where I once fell of a horse and fractured 3 vertebrae... but that's a story for another time). I'm heading up there for a prep weekend for my Vanuatu trip in December. I'll be meeting some of the other people who will be going with me, and doing... I'm not too sure exactly what, but I have been assured by the organisers that it is relevant. I was suppoed to go up this arvo but because of uni prac I couldn't get there in time, so tomorrow morning it is. :o)

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

You might be a nurse if...

I received a newsletter from work the other day and in it was this great "You might be a nurse if..." list. I knew I just had to share it, especially when I realised that I do or have encountered everything on the list. :o)You might be a nurse if...

when using a public restroom, you wash your hands with soap for a full minute and then turn off the faucets with your elbows.

your favourite dream is the one where you leave a mess by a patient's bedside and tell a doctor to clean it up.

men assume you must be great in bed because of the nine billion porn movies about nurses.

everyone, including complete strangers, tells you about each and every ache and pain they have.

you want to put your foot through the TV screen every time you see a nurse on a soap opera doing nothing but talking on the phone and flirting with the doctors.

you can almost see the germs on doorknobs and telephones.

you can watch the goriest movie and eat anything afterwards, even spaghetti with lots of tomato sauce.

you use a plastic 30cc medicine cup as a shot glass.

Yep, I'm definitely a nurse.

On another note, prac sucks. Once again (for the 4th clinical term in 2 years) I have been put into aged care rehab. I thought I'd paid my penance after the first 3 clinical terms in aged care and working in a nursing home for 18 months. But obviously not. Someone, somewhere must really hate me. It's not really that I hate the oldies, most of them are very sweet people, it's just that working on rehab doesn't allow for the passing criteria (set out by the uni) to be met. On rehab all you do is wipe bums, shower people, go for walks and make cups of tea. There is no opportunity to run IV fluids or blood transfusions (if the patient needs those things then they shouldn't be in rehab), no opportunity for perfoming dressings on IV lines and sites (all IV cannulas are generally removed before the patient comes to rehab), and no opportunity (on this ward) to care for a patient that requires additional infection control precautions. The only criterion that I am able to fulfil on this ward is bowel management, and I am sick of looking at people's arses!!!

Craig and I are desperately trying to think of games to keep us amused on the ward. So far we have come up with the word of the day game where you have to use a special word with all the patients (yesterday's word was fuckmook), and we have ascertained that if you were wanting to hang yourself from boredom on the ward, latex gloves would not be the most efficient method... It'd be kinda like trying to hang yourself with a bungee cord.

If anyone else has other ideas for "on the ward" entertainment, please let me know.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

There's no place like home... or is there?

I'm back home and no longer hiding out at Miss Aimee's house. My house is still no fun though. It's boring being by myself. I went to do some grocery shopping yesterday afternoon and as I walked into Coles I called Aimee to see if she wanted anything from the store, unfortunately I wasnt going back to Aimee's and she laughed at me for being so silly. I'm having a bit of separation anxiety now. :o)

I start my clinical placement this arvo at a hospital that is quite a long way away. Seeing as I don't drive I'm going to have to catch a train and walk, which will make the trip even longer. Stoopid random allocations.

I got my flight itinerary for Vanuatu today!!! I leave on the 2nd of December and I get back on the 6th February. The best bit about the whole thing is that work is paying for my flights!!! WOOHOO!!!

Have to go and find my uni name tag for prac this arvo... I don't know where I left it when I was done with it 3 months ago. Bugger.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Where have all the good men gone, and where are all the gods?

I would like to officially apologise for misdirecting my drunken man bashing rant the other night. All men of legal drinking age are NOT responsible for the sins of lesser men in this world.

That said... there is still a ridiculous number of complete arseholes out there in the world, and I seem to be an arsehole magnet. I think I need to get myself de-magnetised so all the bastard men slide right off. :o)

I'm a VIDA Volunteer working for Youth Challenge International Vanuatu and living in Port Vila!!!
I am so loving my island paradise and coconuts by the seafront!
Anyone and everyone is welcome to leave comments... c'mon, don't be shy.